À l'intérieur (2007)
Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury

Film Review

Here we go again.  Just when you thought that auteur cinema had had its fill of the slasher movie, back it comes, like the ghost of Michael Myers, bloodier and hungrier than ever before.  France is in the vanguard of this latest resurgence of interest in the slice 'em and dice 'em genre, which is surprising given that the French have traditionally given the horror genre a very wide berth.  Predictably, the latest wave of entrail-ripping thrillers is dominated by the kind of juvenile dross that killed off the last few slasher crazes, but a few stand out from the rest, capturing both some measure of critical acclaim and an international audience.   These include Alexandre Aja's blood-drenched Haute tension (2003) and David Moreau and Xavier Palud's more subtly chilling Ils (2006).  Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's startling debut feature À l'intérieur takes the slasher concept and propels it into a new and more terrifying direction, combining it with elements of fantasy and psychological thriller to deliver a truly harrowing viewing experience.  Film horror is back, and it's badder and bloodier than ever.

What makes À l'intérieur so particularly disturbing and sets it apart from the more conventional slasher film is that it blurs the boundary between reality and imagination to such an extent that anything is possible, and yet everything appears to be horrifyingly real.  The nearest film to it is Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which offers a similar excursion into a dreamscape of self-induced torment, one in which adolescent sexual repression manifests itself as an all-pervasive and deadly evil (named Fred).  The title À l'intérieur suggests the same kind of of internal conflict, in which the protagonist, a pregnant young woman, must confront her own demons, the product of a traumatic car accident and an impending child birth, and risk losing her sanity along the way.

À l'intérieur is certainly one of the most visually arresting and shocking horror films to have had its gore-drenched set pieces splattered across cinema screens in the past decade, but its gruesome excesses do occasionally go too far and give it an air of theatricality which weakens the tension and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.  As Béatrice Dalle continues with her sadistic killing spree, happily eviscerating her male victims with knitting needles, scissors and a relish that makes Norman Bates look like a rank amateur, there is a point at which the film stops being frightening and comes close to tumbling into the usual slasher movie groove, sacrificing sustained terror for cheap grand guignol-esque thrills. 

As impressive as the mise en scène is (for the most part), even this cannot conceal the film's one Achilles heel, which is a screenplay that ought to have gone through at least three more revisions before it was mailed to the actors.  Alysson Paradis (sister to Vanessa) shows great promise in this, her first major screen role, but her attempts to fashion a convincing character are frustrated by some remarkably bad dialogue.  Béatrice Dalle does not have this problem, mainly because her character is the silent but deadly type, so her histrionic skills are not compromised by the screenwriters' inability to write human.  If you thought Dalle was scary as the cannibalistic siren in Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day (2001), here she will freeze your blood with ease.  Her character looks as if she could have Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees for breakfast, and still enough appetite for Freddy Krueger on toast.

For die-hard fans of the classic slasher movie, À l'intérieur is a must-see film, one that shows this now generally reviled genre at its most nihilistic and viscerally shocking.  Had a little more work gone into the script, this could have been something special, a dark and intelligent study in mental breakdown that probes the absolute limits of psychological terror.  As it is, the film delivers all the familiar shocks and gore-soaked nastiness that we associate with the modern slasher movie, but does little to endear itself to those who like a little more meat and flavour in their horror films - the latter will doubtless be left hungry by this latest unbridled gore fest.

Film Synopsis

Sarah continues to be traumatised by her memory of the horrific car accident which cost the life of her husband and which very nearly killed her as well.  It is Christmas Eve, and she must spend the night alone in her house, not a pleasant prospect for a woman who is due to give birth within twenty four hours.  The day passes peacefully until a strange woman dressed in black appears on her doorstep and asks to borrow her phone to make an urgent call.  That same evening, when Sarah has gone to bed, she is awoken by the sound of an intruder.  To her surprise, it is the same woman she saw earlier.  Sarah is convinced that this stranger intends taking her baby away from her, believing it to be rightfully hers...